Fourteenth Amendment Commons^™

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Jurisdiction Of A State To Tax The Exercise Of A Power Of Appointment, Charles J. O'Laughlin

Michigan Law Review

Decedent's father, a resident of Massachusetts, by his last will created a trust of the residue of his estate, consisting of intangibles, and gave one share to decedent for life, with remainder to whomsoever decedent should appoint by will. The trust was administered in Massachusetts and there was no question as to that state's power to tax. Decedent, a resident of New York, appointed his share to his widow. The New York courts held that although the interest of the decedent fell within the provisions of the New York tax law imposing a tax upon the transfer of the net …

Constitutional Law - State Control Of Interstate Migration Of Indigents, Edward W. Adams

Michigan Law Review

The interstate migration of persons presents the United States with one of its most acute economic and social problems and carries in its wake a series of significant legal questions. Of paramount importance is the constitutional question whether the migration of indigents is subject to state control. To lend understanding to this problem, attention will be called first to the basic economic and social urges underlying interstate migration and second to the position of the indigent as defined by traditional legal concepts. To complete the discussion, suggestions will be offered for corrective federal legislation.

Constitutional Law -- Due Process -- Price-Fixing, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Nebraska statute required the licensing of private employment agencies and limited maximum compensation for services rendered to ten per cent of the first month's salary or wages of the person for whom employment was obtained. In this case the Secretary of Labor of Nebraska refused to issue a license because of the applicant's refusal to limit its compensation to the statutory maximum. In a suit for a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel the issuing of the license, the Secretary of Labor relied on the statute. In reliance on Ribnik v. McBride, the Supreme Court of Nebraska, with …

Criminal Law And Procedure - Conditional Pardons - Right To Notice And Hearing Upon Revocation For Breach Of Condition, Smith Warder

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was granted a pardon upon the condition that if he failed to conduct himself as a useful, upright and law-abiding citizen, he could be rearrested and reconfined at the discretion of the Governor. The Governor made an ex parte revocation and plaintiff was returned to the penitentiary. The action of the Governor was sustained in the state courts. Plaintiff brings habeas corpus in the federal court. Held, plaintiff had a constitutional right to be heard and the denial of this right was in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Fleenor v. Hammond, (C. …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Price Regulation - Prohibition Of Sales Below Cost, George W. Loomis

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was indicted for alleged violation of the Pennsylvania Fair Sales Act, which prohibits the "advertisement, offer for sale, or sale of any merchandise at less than cost by retailers or wholesalers," and makes violation of the act a misdemeanor. His motion to quash the indictment was sustained by the court of the quarter sessions and affirmed by the superior court, and the state appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Held, affirming, that the statute violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment since it is not within the power of the state to prohibit sales below cost …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of State Use Tax On Mail Order Sales Of Foreign Corporation, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The respondent, a New York corporation licensed to do retail business in Iowa, did a large mail order business there also. Iowa customers sent orders by mail to the company's warehouses located outside that state, and the merchandise was shipped directly to the purchaser. On these mail order sales the company neither collected from its customers, nor paid to the state, the Iowa use tax. The petitioner, chairman of the state tax commission, threatened to cancel the respondent's license as a retailer and its permit to do business in Iowa unless such use tax were paid. Respondent obtained an injunction …

Parties - Representative Suits As Res Judicata- Rejection Of Doctrine Of Class Suits In Successive Actions To Enforce Mutual Covenants In Land, Gerald M. Lively

Michigan Law Review

Some 500 frontage owners in a certain described residential district entered into mutual covenants which stipulated against the sale to, or occupation of, such land by negroes. In an action to enjoin a breach of one of these covenants the defense was asserted that a condition precedent requiring ninety-five per cent of the frontage owners to sign the agreement had not been performed. On a trial of the merits it was found that only about fifty-four per cent of the frontage owners had actually signed. However, in a prior action, an owner, on behalf of herself and other like property …

Bankruptcy - Effect Of Discharge - Suspension Of Driver's License For Non-Payment Of Judgment As Conflicting With The Bankruptcy Act, Walter Muller

Michigan Law Review

Under section 94-b of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law, as amended in 1936 and 1939, if a judgment entered against a driver for 'damages for injury to person or property remains unpaid for fifteen days, the clerk of the court where the judgment was entered must (but only upon written demand of the judgment creditor) forward a copy thereof to the commissioner of motor vehicles, whose duty it then becomes to suspend the driving license of such judgment debtor; further, section 94-c provides (a) that such suspension shall continue for such part of three years as the judgment …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Use Of Involuntary Confessions In Criminal Cases, Reed T. Phalan

Michigan Law Review

The practice of wringing confessions from the lips of persons accused of crime forms a substantial blot on the history of the medieval administration of criminal law. Never legalized in England, the practice early earned the condemnation of writers and criticism of courts. From a recognition of human rights and a perception of the unreliability of statements extorted by violence, evolved the general rule, now long recognized in England and the United States, that the accused's involuntary confession is inadmissible in evidence against him. Recently this rule of evidence has been implemented by the recognition of the United States Supreme …

Constitutional Law - Labor Law - Peaceful Picketing Guaranteed By Due Process Clause Of Fourteenth Amendment, Eugene T. Kinder

Michigan Law Review

In the recent Thornhill and Carlson decisions the Supreme Court of the United States declared an Alabama statute and a California county ordinance prohibiting all picketing, peaceful or otherwise, unconstitutional on the ground that such broad legislation deprived employees and union members of their right of free speech, guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In holding that employees and workers have a constitutional right to publicize the facts of a labor dispute, the Court was but taking another step in its recent crusade for the preservation of civil liberties. …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Freedom Of Religion And Conscience - Compulsory Flag Salute, William F. Andersen

Michigan Law Review

The minor plaintiffs, aged twelve and thirteen, had been excluded from the public school because of repeated refusal to salute the national flag and recite the pledge of allegiance in accordance with an authorized order of the school board. They sought an injunction in the federal district court against such prohibition, alleging that the order violated the Fourteenth Amendment as an infringement on the free exercise of religion in that their beliefs forbade the revering of anything but God. The injunction was granted and the decree was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. A writ of certiorari was granted …

Trade Restraints - Due Process - Interference With Liberty To Fix Sale Price Of Gasoline, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1925 the state of Iowa enacted a statute requiring all distributors of gasoline in the state, wholesale or retail, to post in plain sight the price at which they intended to sell their gasoline, setting out all taxes thereon. They were then bound to sell at this price to all buyers. Defendant was such a dealer, and although he posted the price, he failed to abide by it as to all sales and was charged with violating the statute. The lower court sustained defendant's demurrers, holding the statute unconstitutional as a denial of due process and equal protection of …

Constitutional Law - Privileges And Immunities Of Federal Citizenship - Discriminatory Tax On Out-Of-State Bank Deposits - Colgate V. Harvey Overruled, C. Eugene Gressman

Michigan Law Review

A Kentucky statute imposed on its citizens an annual ad valorem tax on their bank deposits outside the state at the rate of fifty cents per $100 and at the same time imposed on their bank deposits within the state a similar tax at the rate of ten cents per $100. Decedent, a resident and citizen of Kentucky, died in 1929. On several prior tax assessment dates, he had large funds on deposit in New York banks which he failed to report for taxation purposes. The state brought suit against the executor to recover the tax, interest, and penalties. The …

Expatriation Of American Minors, Lester B. Orfield

Michigan Law Review

The United States Supreme Court in May, 1939, handed down a vitally significant decision on the expatriation of American minors. Prior to that date, one was forced to deduce the law from conflicting decisions of the lower federal courts and of state courts, rulings by the departments of state, labor, and justice, and views of writers. This, therefore, seems an appropriate time at which to discuss the problems which have been raised and the solutions which have been offered.

Non-Natural Persons And The Guarantee Of "Liberty" Under The Due Process Clause, D. J. Farage

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax - Multiple Taxation Of Intangibles, Richard Brawerman

Michigan Law Review

In two recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Curry v. McCanless, and Graves v. Elliott, a majority of the justices refused to adhere to the doctrine that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits taxation of intangibles by more than one state, and subscribed instead to the view that control and benefit are together the only test of jurisdiction of the states to tax. In Curry v. McCanless, the decedent, a resident of Tennessee, had created a trust of intangibles, reserving control over the income during her life and power to revoke the trust by will. The trust …

Constitutional Law - Fourteenth Amendment - Privileges And Immunities Clause - Civil Liberties - The Hague Case, John N. Seaman

Michigan Law Review

The decisions of the United States Supreme Court in recent years, interpreting the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, have manifested two striking changes in trend. The first is towards less judicial restraint on governmental regulation of business; that is, towards tolerance of diminished "business liberty." The other is towards greater judicial restraint on governmental interference with individual liberty, commonly called civil liberty. A recent case/ which upheld freedom of speech and assembly and invalidated a city ordinance requiring the obtaining of a permit as prerequisite to a public meeting, not only illustrates the latter of these trends, but is …

Taxation-Procedural Devices For Preventing Multiple Taxation Of Intangibles Based On Domicile - Original Suit By Way Of Interpleader Before Supreme Court, Edmund O'Hare

Michigan Law Review

The famous Dorrance litigation raised very sharply the problem of avoiding multiple inheritance taxes based upon conflicting claims of domicile. Up to that time it was thought that the right of a state to levy an inheritance tax upon intangible personal property owned by a nonresident decedent had been effectively denied by Farmers Loan & Trust Co. v. Minnesota, Baldwin v. Missouri, and First National Bank of Boston v. Maine. But the Dorrance cases resulted in the collection of huge inheritance taxes by Pennsylvania and New Jersey, both states grounding their assessments upon the assertion that Dr. Dorrance …

Taxation-Income Tax -Jurisdiction -Trusts - State Tax On Resident Beneficiary's Net Income From Trust Established And Administered By Non-Resident Trustee, Allan A. Rubin

Michigan Law Review

The state of Virginia imposed an income tax upon the income received by a resident of Virginia as beneficiary of a discretionary trust established and administered in New York by a resident of New York, which state had levied and collected an income tax on the entire income of the trust fund. Petitioner protested the payment of the Virginia tax, alleging the taking of property without due process of law and the denial of equal privileges in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. Held, that the tax was valid, since it was ascertained by the beneficiary's …

Constitutional Law - Equal Protection Of The Laws - Exclusion Of Negro From Law School Of State University, Fred C. Newman

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, a negro, was refused admission to the law school of the State University of Missouri solely upon the ground of his race. While the state of Missouri assumed to provide reasonable tuition fees for the legal education of negro residents of Missouri in other states and possibly contemplated providing opportunities for professional training for negroes within the state at some future date, it did not provide for any instruction in law for negroes within the state. The Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the judgment of the circuit court quashing an alternative writ of mandamus and denying a peremptory writ …

The Constitution Of The United States At The End Of One Hundred Fifty Years, Hugh Evander Willis

Historic Documents

Including the original Constitution, the formal amendments, and that part of the Constitution made by the Supreme Court and custom, as found in the Supreme Court Reports, arranged so far as possible according to the analysis found in the original Constitution.

With an Introduction by Hugh Evander Willis

Indiana University Publications Social Science Series No.1 1939

Criminal Law And Procedure - Appeal By State - Constitutionality Of Statutes-Due Process Of Law, Edward D. Ransom

Michigan Law Review

Developing as a result of a period when an accused person was placed at a tremendous disadvantage at the hands of tyrannical judges exercising an unconscionable abuse of power, the concept that no person shall "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb" was put into the Fifth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and into many of the state constitutions. As a part of this double jeopardy concept, the American courts, from the first, established the rule that the state should not be allowed to appeal in a criminal prosecution. The accused, …

Interstate Commerce - Constitutionality Of State Weight And Size Limitations As Applied To Interstate Motor Carriers, Paul G. Kauper

Michigan Law Review

A South Carolina statute limited the width of motor trucks (including semi-trailers) to 90 inches and their gross weight to 20,000 pounds. The validity of this legislation was challenged before a three-judge federal court on three grounds: (1) that it was a denial of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment; (2) that the power of the states to regulate size and weight of motor vehicles used in interstate commerce had been superseded by the Federal Motor Carrier Act of 1935; (3) that the statute as applied to vehicles used by interstate motor carriers placed an unreasonable burden upon interstate commerce. …

The Judicial Veto, Louis A. Warsoff

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of The Contract Clause And The Fourteenth Amendment Upon The Power Of The States To Control Municipal Corporations, E. B. Schulz

Michigan Law Review

Although the power to establish systems of local government is reserved to the states under the Federal Constitution, they are obliged to exercise it in conformity with the limitations, direct or indirect, by which their powers in general are circumscribed. Since a state lacks authority to delegate powers which it does not possess, it may not confer upon municipal corporations, to cite but a few examples, the power to pass ex post facto laws and bills of attainder, to coin money, to emit bills of credit, to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, or to levy taxes for strictly private purposes. …

Taxation - Jurisdiction To Tax Intangibles - Business Situs, William Stout Gordon

Michigan Law Review

The appellant, a Delaware corporation doing business in Minnesota, held the controlling interest in the stock of a large number of banks in numerous states. It transacted its corporate business and fiscal affairs in Minnesota and maintained a business office there. A property tax was imposed by Minnesota upon appellant's shares of stock in Montana and North Dakota state banking corporations. Appellant contended that, since Montana and North Dakota had imposed a property tax on the same shares, the Minnesota tax was contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that the shares of stock had acquired a "business situs" …

Eminent Domain - Public Housing And Slum Clearance As A "Public Use", Wayne E. Babler

Michigan Law Review

The recent legislation providing for housing and slum clearance raises the interesting and practical problem of whether a taking of land for such housing and slum clearance purposes by means of an eminent domain proceeding is condemnation for a "public use," within the meaning of that term in eminent domain proceedings. Such a taking was held to be for a public use in the recent case of Spahn v. Stewart.

Constitutional Law - Protection Of Freedom Of Speech Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Jack L. White

Michigan Law Review

The appellant, a negro member of the Communist Party, was engaged in work as a paid party organizer in Atlanta in 1932. Shortly after leading a hunger march of unemployed he was arrested, and was tried and convicted under a state statute, enacted in the Reconstruction Period, which made criminal "any attempt, by persuasion or otherwise, to induce others to join in any combined resistance to the lawful' authority of the State." At the time of his arrest the appellant had in his possession evidence of his organization activities and also a quantity of party literature, but there was no …

Constitutional Law-Due Process -Fair Trade Acts, Milton Rabinowitz

Michigan Law Review

The New York "Fair Trade Act" proclaims price maintenance agreements subservient to the public policy of the state, and renders price cutting by any merchant with knowledge of such an agreement, even though not a party thereto, actionable as unfair competition at the suit of anyone injured thereby. In Doubleday, Doran & Co. v. Macy & Co., the New York court had condemned the enactment as violating the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Subsequently, the United States Supreme Court, in Old Dearborn Distributing Co. v. Seagram-Distiller Corp., decided the contrary as to the validity of a …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Minimum Wage Legislation Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Jack L. White

Michigan Law Review

A state statute provided that it should be unlawful to employ women at wages not adequate for their maintenance, and established a commission to fix wages according to such a standard after a public hearing and a conference of representatives of employees and employers, and disinterested persons representing the public. The appellee was employed as a chambermaid in the hotel of appellant at less than the minimum wage prescribed, and brought suit to recover the difference between these amounts. The state court gave judgment for the appellee, and on certiorari the Supreme Court held that the statute was valid and …